Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
Richard Wagner inspired in his contemporaries extremes of reaction. For
some his music seemed as misguided and repulsive as his anti-Semitism, while
others were overwhelmed by the size of his ambition and achievement, to which everything
had to be sacrificed. Wagner's career was in many ways thoroughly
discreditable. He betrayed friends and patrons, accumulated debts with abandon,
and seemed, in pursuit of his aims, an unprincipled opportunist. Nevertheless,
whatever his defects of character, he exercised a hypnotic influence over his
immediate followers, while his creation of a new form of music-drama, in which
the arts were combined, and the magnitude of his conception continue to
fascinate.

The tetralogy of The Ring,
based on a conflation of Teutonic and Scandinavian legends, was originally
conceived while Wagner was enjoying his first real success as conductor at the
opera in Dresden, where Rienzi, The Flying Dutchman and Tannhäuser were first performed. In 1848,
with revolution in the air, Wagner began work on the poem concerning the death
of the hero Siegfried, a text that was to serve as the basis for the fourth
opera in the cycle, Götterdämmerung.

In 1849 Wagner was forced to leave Dresden in haste. His creditors had,
in any case, made his stay there uneasy, but in 1849 he was implicated in the
rising against the monarchy, and escaped to Switzerland, leaving his wife
behind. The first years of exile brought the completion of the text of The Ring and its publication in 1853,
followed by the composition of the music of the first opera, Das Rheingold by 1854 and the second, Die Walküre two years later. The complete
cycle, however, was performed for the first time at the new Festspielhaus in
Bayreuth in 1876. There, with the help of his young patron King Ludwig II of
Bavaria, he had been able to establish his own operatic kingdom, realising his
revolutionary ideas of music-drama and investing the art of opera with a
significance and weight that it had not generally possessed before.

In July, 1882, the last of Wagner's operas, Parsifal, was staged at Bayreuth at the end of July, running
for sixteen performances under the direction of Hermann Levi. In September the
composer travelled again to Italy, where an easier way of life seemed likely to
be of benefit to his health. He died in Venice in February, 1883, after a
severe heart attack and was later buried in the garden of his house in
Bayreuth. His legacy to the world was an enduring body of stage works and a
festival centred on them, as well as continued conflict between those
fascinated by his achievement and those appalled by aspects of his character
and his writing.

The Flying Dutchman
has its literary source in the seventh chapter of Heine's Aus den Memoiren des Herren von Schnabelewopski,
used by at least one earlier composer to provide the libretto of an opera. The
story of the phantom ship and its haunted master appealed even more to Wagner
after his own experiences at sea, when he was caught in a storm, sailing from
the Baltic port of Pillau to England, to take refuge from his continental
creditors in 1839. Sheltering in a Norwegian fjord, he was reminded of Heine's
story, resulting in the composition of the libretto and music of the new opera,
completed in Paris in 1841. The work was first staged at Dresden in 1843,
leading to his appointment as conductor at the opera-house there.

The Overture to The Flying Dutchman, with its story of the
legendary haunted Dutchman, fated to sail the seas in his ghostly ship until
redeemed by true love, sets the scene of what the composer described as a
storm-swept ballad. Leit-rnotifs, themes or fragments of themes, appear and
re-appear, dominated by the horn call associated with the Dutchman and the
rushing strings of the sea and wind. Another theme that appears in the Overture is associated with Senta, the
girl who loves the Dutchman and dies for him, as he sails away in apparent
disappointment at what he believes to be her betrayal. Her sacrifice brings him
final redemption.

While travelling to Dresden, Wagner passed the mountain of the
Wartburg, and in 1842, during a stay in Teplitz. sketched the libretto of his
new opera. Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf
Wartburg, described as a grand romantic opera, was staged for
the first time in Dresden in October, 1845. The story of the opera is derived
from a 14th century legend about a 13th century Minnesinger, the aristocratic
poet-composer and crusader Tannhäuser. He is found first in the Venusberg,
singing the praise of the goddess of love, but his invocation of the name of
the Mother of Christ brings him back to the human world and the valley of the
Wartburg, where he hears a band of pilgrims pass and is greeted by the nobles.
At a song contest in the Wartburg Castle Tannhäuser's impassioned praise of
Venus is defended by Elisabeth, niece of the Landgrave, and the hero is
despatched to Rome to seek forgiveness, to be denied him by the Pope. On his
return he finds Elisabeth dead of a broken heart, but pilgrims enter bearing a
staff from the Pope that has sprouted leaves, a sign of papal pardon.

The Prelude to Tannhäuser includes a number of themes and
motifs that have later importance in the score. The sound of the Pilgrims' Chorus is heard and a motif of
repentance, contrasted with the Venusberg music and the Hymn to Venus. The Dresden version of the overture ended with a return to the Pilgrims' Chorus, while for Paris Wagner
led straight into the Bacchanal,
a pagan celebration of love. This is the Venusberg
music of the first act. The entrance of the nobility in the second
act is accompanied by a festal march, followed by the entrance of the
contestants in the song contest on the subject of love. The introduction to the third act gives a
musical account of Tannhäuser's pilgrimage to Rome, in search of absolution.

Lohengrin was
first performed at the Court Theatre in Weimar in 1850, with Liszt conducting.
Wagner himself had taken refuge in Switzerland, after his indiscreet support of
revolution in Dresden against his royal patron. He was later, through Liszt's
generosity, to be joined there by his wife Minna, who had at first seemed
reluctant, as she wrote, to continue to serve as a good-hearted bootblack to
her egocentric husband, by his dog and by his parrot.

The new opera, which established him as an international figure of
importance in the world of opera, was set in the 10th century and concerns the
unjust accusations levelled against Elsa, ruler of Brabant, and her defence by
an unknown knight, who appears in a boat drawn by a swan and promises to be her
defender and husband if she never asks his name or origin. Elsa is tricked into
asking just this question, on the day of her wedding, and the mysterious knight
reveals that he is Lohengrin, son of Parsifal, from the Temple of the Holy
Grail. Before he leaves he restores Elsa's brother Gottfried, turned by evil
magic into a swan, to his original shape.

The Prelude to Act I
represents the mystical appearance of the Holy Grail, growing in radiance as it
descends to men, and disappearing again, as the overture comes to an end, after
celebrating the triumph of Lohengrin's divine mission. The third act is
introduced by music for the wedding celebration of Elsa and her mysterious
knight and champion.

The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra
The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has benefited considerably from the work of
its distinguished conductors. These included Vaclav Talich (1949 - 1952),
Ludovit Rajter and Ladislav Slovak. The Czech conductor Libor Pesek was
appointed resident conductor in 1981, and the present Principal Conductor is
the Slovak musician Bystrik Rezucha. Zdenek Kosler has also had a long and
distinguished association with the orchestra and has conducted many of its most
successful recordings, among them the complete symphonies of Dvorák.

During the years of its professional existence the Slovak Philharmonic
has worked under the direction of many of the most distinguished conductors
from abroad, from Eugene Goossens and Malcolm Sargent to Claudio Abbado, Antal
Dorati and Riccardo Muti.

The orchestra has undertaken many tours abroad, including visits to
Germany and Japan, and has made a large number of recordings for the Czech Opus
label, for Supraphon, for Hungaroton and, in recent years, for the Marco Polo
and Naxos labels. These recordings have brought the orchestra a growing
international reputation and praise from the critics of leading international
publications.

Michael Halász
Born in Hungary in 1938, Michael Halász began his professional career
as principal bassoonist in the Philharmonia Hungarica, a position he occupied
for eight years, before studying conducting in Essen. His first engagement as a
conductor was at the Munich Gaertnerplatz Theatre, where, from 1972 to 1975, he
directed all operetta productions. In 1975 he moved to Frankfurt as principal
Kapellmeister under Christoph von Dohnányi, working with the most distinguished
singers and conducting the most important works of the operatic repertoire.
Engagements as a guest-conductor followed, and in 1977 Dohnányi took him to the
Staatsoper in Hamburg as principal Kapellmeister.

In 1978 Michael Halász was appointed General Musical Director at the
opera-house in Hagen, and there has further developed his experience of the
repertoire, while undertaking guest engagements, which included television
appearances as conductor in English and German versions of the Gerard Hoffnung
Music Festival, as well as work with the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Bamberg
Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and the Hilversurn Radio
Orchestra.

For the Marco Polo label, Michael Halász has recorded works by Richard
Strauss, Anton Rubinstein, Schreker and Miaskovsky and for Naxos works by
Tchaikovsky, Rossini and Beethoven.